Karma Mom's the birthday girl!

My mom celebrated a rather important birthday last Saturday, but I had some struggles with my blog posting, and then became deathly ill (which is an exaggeration but a very tragic story all the same) so this post is a little late. (I'm awfully sorry Mom.)

I believe I've mentioned this before, but Karm is basically just amazing. I don't know anyone I'd rather be like than my mom. She's who I call for basically anything I need, or to share a funny story with, or to call and complain about work, etc. One time I asked Joe if he worried what I'd be like when we get older and he said no, because I'm already basically my mom. If only that were true...(For the record, just because your mom was incredibly disciplined about housework and staying physically fit doesn't mean you will be. True story.)

My mom is truly just the best mom there is. I'm sure plenty of people say that but I'm totally serious. It just doesn't get better than Karma Jo.
Sure do love you mama, happy **th birthday!!!

To Kristin, with love...

This post is for my dear friend Kristin. It's basically a few random things about me that don't mean much to anybody.

I went on a first date with a boy that took me to Temple Square to make wishes in the fountain for each year of my life. (Making 25 wishes all together.) About an hour in to the date my only wish was to be home.

When I was 17 (and 40 pounds heavier) it was not uncommon for me to buy a box of donuts and eat the whole thing within an hour or so. I would then wash it down with 32 ounces of soda.

I have used the "Oh I must have bad reception" excuse to hang up on a boy, and never call back. (I know it sounds awful but a girl can only take so many awkward conversations before she snaps.)

I once threw buckets of rotten fruit at a neighbor girl that I didn't want to play with. (Ash knows who I'm talking about. J-j-j-junkson.)

One time I spent the afternoon telling my brand new mission companion awful scary stories about skin-walkers (wikipedia them if you're not familiar) and then waited until we had blown out our candles (no electricity at the time) and had gone to bed. I waited until I knew she was almost asleep, crawled silently across the floor, grabbed her shoulder and whispered her name. It worked, she was scared.

Every once in awhile I will rearrange things in an attorney's office at work. I've stacked chairs, moved books to different shelves, things like that. She is CONVINCED that they are hate crimes, and that someone is trying to "send her a message." I love it.

To Kristin, I love you, here's a post.

Stevie Boy's big day!

Steven Kade Bennett has a birthday tomorrow, but I'll be on the road so I thought I'd better send some love tonight. My youngest memories with Steve aren't always the best (mostly I remember things like locking him downstairs when he would babysit me, or him chasing me with chairs and other heavy objects, or him giving me my one and only bloody nose) but as the years passed by and I was old enough to not be an embarrasment, we became good friends. I sure do love my Stevie Boy. He is so knowledgable about so many things and is my go to guy when it comes to purchasing anything that's used outdoors. He can always convince me to do ridiculous things like climbing multiple fences, and hiking dangerous hills with fishing poles in hand, only to go fly fishing in FREEZING COLD rivers with rushing water up to my waist. He's a good boy, that Sam. He's a great dad and has become quite a softie (which is a miracle of all miracles) with his babies and the rest of us too. Happy Birthday Viejito! You look more like dad every day! :)

Is honesty TRULY the best policy?

I am not a naturally nice person. Those that know me well can tell you that it is a constant battle for me to keep myself from saying something that I proably won't, but should regret later. One thing that does come easily to me is telling the truth. Something I've learned is that sometimes nice and truth don't mix. I tried mixing them and this was the end result:

Coworker: I never feel a very warm welcome when I come downstairs to the lit (litigation) department.
Me: Oh that's too bad.
What I'm really thinking: Probably because you're an awful human being.

Coworker: No I'm serious. I don't feel like anybody really cares for me on this floor.
Me: Oh I'm sure that's not true.
What I'm really thinking: If you weren't such a bad person people might like you more.

Coworker: No really, I'm not kidding. Tell me Kacey, do you consider me a friend?
Me: (using what I consider to be superhuman levels of restraint at this point)Sure.
What I'm really thinking: NOOOO!

Coworker: I'm not joking around. If you were at home telling a story to your husband that involved me would you call me your friend?
Me: Probably not.
What I'm really thinking: No. Not only would I not call you my friend, I would probably use lots of descriptive and possibly inappropriate words to explain how awful I feel you truly are.

Coworker: See now that offends me. It hurts my feelings that you wouldn't consider me a friend and it bothers me even more because I don't think you're alone in the way you feel.
Me: Oh my opinion doesn't matter, and I'm sure I'm alone.
What I'm really thinking: I'm not alone. I checked.

Coworker: No, I don't think you are. I've noticed that I am just not well received by this department.
Me: I guess you probably don't want to come around much then.
What I'm really thinking: Please don't come back into my office ever again.

I really did try to be polite, but something inside of me HAS to tell the truth. Please take note that I while I'm willing to attempt kindness, honestly always wins out with me. If you remember this simple fact, you might help both of us avoid an awkward conversation.

Extended Family!

Peter has a new family member to play with. My mom and dad got a new dog, and we decided to name him Uncle Charlie. Charlie is such a cute, loving boy. Peter loves Charlie and once he realized that Charlie wasn't going to share our house they got along famously. I picked him up from Salt Lake County Shelter and we drove him down to Nephi to meet my dad. I was very nervous about what kind of travler he would be (Joe isn't as patient as I am with our canine friends)but he was so great. He just wanted to be a part of the fun. Once he realized that Peter was allowed to sit up front on my lap (for anyone wanting to lecture me, I KNOW it's not safe. Don't judge me!) he of course wanted to sit there too. This is how we rode to Nephi.






Welcome to the family Charlie!!!

The m stands for mud.

My dad had a birthday on Tuesday and I am just getting around to posting about it. Shame on me. I don't love him any less because of the delay I just couldn't find my photos. My dad's name is Nyle M. Bennett. The m doesn't stand for anything, it's just an initial. My dad always told me that it stood for mud. I still remember Mrs. Hurst telling me she highly doubted that my dad's middle name was mud and me telling her that she could think what she wanted, I was right. I think the stubborn gene was passed down from Mr. Mud himself. My dad can be quite stubborn and is very set in his ways but he is an incredibly great man. I learned the true meaning of giving service from my dad. He is always so willing to do anything for anybody without ever being asked. Just this last weekend he and my mom came up to stay with us and celebrate my dad's birthday and he spent a good chunk of his time helping (and by helping I mean Joe watched and handed my dad things) Joe fix all of our sprinklers. It's almost impossible to describe my dad to somebody who has never met him. I think the best I can do is by saying he's a little bit country, and a little bit rock 'n roll. He's also just the best. Sure do love you pops, happy birthday!!!

Easter Weekend

We had a delightful weekend. We went to my mission reunion on Friday (which confirmed to me that sometimes the past should stay in the past) and did some Easter celebrating on Saturday. I guess the Easter Bunny remembered that he always delivered my baskets on Saturday (Sunday was always for the important part of Easter)because we woke up to find our baskets filled with goodies.


As you can see, the Easter Bunny was very good to us this year. I got a new bottle of my favorite perfume (I've been rationing what's left of my old bottle) and Joe received Season 1 of Arrested Development, and a subscription to Golf Digest. The Easter Bunny would like to ask all of you to refrain from judging the homemade gift certificate for Golf Digest. With all that the Bunny had to do this last week a trip to the store to buy the actual magazine just didn't happen.

We got to play with cute Krewser Bruiser for a couple of hour in the afternoon. Such a happy little baby, and as you'll see in the picture below he is already a big fan of General Conference. Whenever the choir would sing he'd go right next to the tv.



Next it was time to color eggs. I don't know how excited Joe was to do it but he was a good sport and played along. No matter how old I am I still love to do one egg in all of the colors. It never ends up pretty.


On Sunday we slept late, made waffles, and watched Conference. I don't have any pictures of this day because showering wasn't on my "to do" list until after the day was pretty much over. All in all our weekend was fairly quiet, and VERY enjoyable.